Zwift, my journey, my weight and my fitness.

That’s a colossal power increase in what seems to be a very short time and a whopping FTP. How are you measuring it?

All measured via my Tacx Vortex bought just before Christmas - regularly calibrated. I'm not saying that it is accurate by any means, but I'm using it as way to see if I have improved. As I said that was my first proper FTP test, rather than just setting it in Zwift events. I'd only previously performed FTHR tests, and I never managed to get anywhere near what I did on the trainer (10bpm difference at least). I guess without the distraction of trying to avoid being cleaned up by a car I was able to bury myself deeper. The last minute was absolute torture, and the last 10 seconds were throwing up territory. I did find that my recovery was relatively quicker than I expected though.

Edit: I don’t mean to sound dubious, but a 400w ftp is up around pro level. It’s about what Alex Dowsett put out for his hour record in May 2015. I guess you probably weigh a little more though.

I'd be dubious that I could maintain that for an solid hour, which makes the FTP figure a bit of a joke. Maybe I'll have to try it one day. I'm just under 94kg at the moment, but am 6ft 4 so it's spread out. I suspect that Alex has a better w/kg than me, plus he'll be less of a wind-brake. Apparently I leave quite a large hole in the air for people to draft in.

Cool. I was just intrigued. And yep, that sounds like an FTP test. The Sufferfest 4D 'Full Frontal' test is quite unpleasant - includes two five-second sprint efforts, followed by a five-minute one, then - when you're nailed - the 20-minute test and finally a one-minute death rattle...

I guess the accuracy of the figure is irrelevant as long as it's consistent.

I should be having a go at The Chop ride @ 8pm in C-B grade if anybody fancies it?

I won't be going silly tonight though 🙂

Rest day today...

You don't know the meaning of it 🙂 You'll be flat out from the gun and pinned at 300+w

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I guess the accuracy of the figure is irrelevant as long as it’s consistent.
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<div>except on zwift, where it gives you a false w/kg and will have you smashing round in races etc, i guess thats part of the problem though with accuracy of trainers/power meters</div>

except on zwift, where it gives you a false w/kg and will have you smashing round in races etc, i guess thats part of the problem though with accuracy of trainers/power

He's a big lad, has been training hard for 3 months and regularly calibrates his turbo, what more do you want him to do?

He meant from his first test to his 2nd test... the actual numbers are not important, but the improvement gap is... Whether it's actually 400w or 300w doesn't matter... as long as it's the same turbo, setup etc each time

Tallpaul is added to the list of people to avoid in races 😀. Sheesh those are some big numbers,

I bagged a SILVER in todays wbr race which was 1 lap of greatest london hilly. I wasnt really keen to do boxhill again after yesterdays double hill torture but not really much else to go for. So imagine my surprise when we turned right instead of left at the boxhill junction, i had no idea where i was but realised it was leith hill climb. I have done it once before but only warming so i had no idea of the course so thought this might be interesting. Err no it wasnt, it was brutal, far worse than boxhill in my mind but this might be due to the ridiculous pace before we got to the climb plus my tired legs. I got up in 6:12 and in a group of 3 but i was suffering and ended up having to bridge a 5 sec gap on the downhill due to a stuck chain. I had nothing for a sprint so had to just consolidate 2nd. I ended up with avg 290w for the race but it felt like 390w.

Good job I don't race (yet).

I'm sure that in a race I'd be rubbish as I have no idea about tactics, and can't stop yo-yoing when trying to catch a draft.

except on zwift, where it gives you a false w/kg and will have you smashing round in races etc, i guess thats part of the problem though with accuracy of trainers/power meters

That's just Zwift for you though. I think you have to accept that not everything on there is accurate and never will be. Short of forcing everyone to use a certificated power meter and scales, there's not really much you can do about that.

That Silver is looking a bit yellow

Well i never, Tiger is indeed right and i have been upgraded to GOLD. To be fair though the other rider was faster than me and he was only dq’d for no hr so dont really class that as a win.

Nothing too surprising about 400 and 94 kg. Well done for a great improvement. Take off 33% from each of those numbers and you are me, except you will trounce me down hills 😀

And mine's a certified KICKR, matched to field race testing in real road and circuit races with an Assioma pedal power meter.

Team STW has a number of A riders.

Joined a ZSUN A ride last night taking in Box Hill and Fox Hill. There are some properly fast climbers out there. I did OK, setting a couple of PBs climbing at over 400w (7m 30sec for Box Hill I think) , but there were at least 3 guys who just rode away and were over a minute and a half ahead.

Spent a lot of time yo-yoing out the front and then to the back of the group. Is there a particular technique you guys use to avoid this?

Looks like the Alpe du Zwift is live too. May have to have a look. The Four Horsemen route in particular looks brutal, but the Tour of Fire and Ice could be quite nice.

The RideLondon 100 training plan is up too, so thats my next 16 weeks planned, although looking at the workouts I may have to add in a few longer outdoor rides.

Yep, just seen the Alpe de Zwift is open. If anyone fancies a group ride up there this evening maybe we could all get together at the same time?

I assume its 'road to sky?'

yup. seems so

Nothing too surprising about 400 and 94 kg.

It was as much the huge increase I was intrigued by to be honest. Putting almost 50 watts on an ftp from - I think - 'just before Christmas' to now is pretty impressive.

I guess you're right in the sense that proportionally it's not much more than I'm putting out relative to weight, again on a Kickr,

make it stop!

Zwift, it just works 😀

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Wasn't even feeling too clever this morning, will have to do that route in again when i'm not limping!

long way this!

Haha, keep going weeksy - is it alpe d'huez? Are you out of the trees yet?

coming up to 5 hairpins to go post

Done 86min 37

The target has been set, will give it a go later........

Suspect on current form its 90 minutes + for me.

fastest guy is 44min!

Apologies for the rubbish pic.... Admittedly it's post Zwift ride weight.. But it's 14st 0

Down from 15st 10 on 1st Jan.

[url= https://farm1.staticflickr.com/894/27218752808_1252fc8d77_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm1.staticflickr.com/894/27218752808_1252fc8d77_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/HtedVw ]14_0[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr

Thinking back about that ride, it was obviously easier for me than real world as only 55% difficulty on slider but what i find remarkable is that if it were a pro race, you could easily see 2 if not 3 of them hills in a day, along with another 100km of flat/undulating. It's just absolutely astounding.

Nice one Weeksy. Bash the Four Horsemen route out a few times a week and you'll be fending off the agents. The sheer volume the pros do is mind boggling. Is Corner 7 Dutch Corner then?

On the weight thing - firstly well done. But just bear in mind you'll be 14st plus 86 mins of sweat. It's not best to do a weigh-in after such an exertion but if you are comparing against similar conditions from January then fair enough.

LOL i know it's very much an optimistic weight, it was techincally 14st 4 when i got up this morning 🙂 But i'm taking the 14st 0 even if it's only for a few hours 🙂

“It was as much the huge increase I was intrigued by to be honest. Putting almost 50 watts on an ftp from – I think – ‘just before Christmas’ to now is pretty impressive.”

I think my FTP increased by around 40-50 watts in a month or so.

The difference was in pacing and effort rather than fitness.

Fair enough. I'm sure it's a welcome sight. So that's 2 and a half stone since this thread started? If only you listened to all that advice on nutrition, you'd be 9 st by now! 😉

Puts pizza box down, I can’t put the pizza back in the box anymore!

Not acceptably anyway.

LOL i'm not very good at listening whether it's nutrition or training, it's just me being who i am. I deal with the consequences as they are and as they come up. Sure, with better planning i could be a good B and 9st.... but alternatively i'd have given up a year ago and still been 16st 5

Thinking back about that ride, it was obviously easier for me than real world as only 55% difficulty on slider but what i find remarkable is that if it were a pro race, you could easily see 2 if not 3 of them hills in a day, along with another 100km of flat/undulating. It’s just absolutely astounding.

Yeah, riding in the Alps is pretty humbling. The other thing, that you don't get on Zwift, is the effect of altitude on the really high passes.

Yeah, riding in the Alps is pretty humbling. The other thing, that you don’t get on Zwift, is the effect of altitude on the really high passes.

At 3500M* I was barely able to push my bike, let alone race 🙁

*and recovering from an illness

I think my FTP increased by around 40-50 watts in a month or so.

The difference was in pacing and effort rather than fitness.

So being pedantic, what actually increased was your tested FTP rather than your actual FTP because - as I think Nick mentioned somewhere up the thread - you got better at doing an FTP test. I guess the thing is, if you're using your FTP as a basis for training with power then getting it right is quite important.

Sorry if I seem a little fixated. I'm just fascinated by how the whole power thing works and the way you can  see other people's metrics in real time on Zwift. Perhaps I should just go and ride my bike 🙂

At 3500M* I was barely able to push my bike, let alone race

Recovering from an illness

<div id="singl-88fb130f3355fabf5f20e4a3dd8b3063"> I had a brutal day on the Bonette with a combination of altitude and a horrific headwind pretty much stopping me in my tracks. I also once went for a jog at over 5,000m in Bolivia out of curiosity. I was properly acclimatised after six months of mountaineering, but it was still quite, erm, 'interesting'.</div>

The FTP test that saw the big increase for me was definitely down to being better at knowing how hard I can push and how to pace that out for the duration of the test.

There will have been some fitness gains, but mainly it was about suffering better.

Well done on the weight there Weeksy. Go that man.

I am on a similar journey. 93kgs after christmas and after a race involving 2 laps of Box hill last night (4th place C!) i got on the scales to see 83.9. Couldn't believe it. Not been that weight since late 20s and I am 51 now. And to top it all I jumped on again this morning after a night of (interrupted) sleep, and I am now 83.8 kgs. 🙂

Shame our CC weigh in is tomorrow

53 minutes 40 secs up the Alpe. OMG that was long, but fun. Maybe on a less rapid ride I'll have a bit of a look around.

Spotted the squirrel too.

My FTP increase was definitely mostly to do with knowing how hard I could push myself after doing the 4wk FTP Booster workouts.

Couple of days off now to visit friends, and grab some calories back.

@Weeksy Great work on the weight. I'll be happy with being 90kg in 4 months from 94kg now.

What kind of power or W/kg are you riding this at?

my workout tomorrow is 1:10 at 3.3w/kg constant, i feel it may as well be up the hill and see what happens...

Slower at the end! I started about 240-250w and plummeted to struggling for 200.

I averaged about 220w up ADZ, 3.3 w/kg, for a 59 minute time. Not full gas but as I'm still recovering from a cold, probably all I could do.

Boom, just completed. 66 minutes and more than happy with that. Not fresh and not really warmed up and with no-one to push you it was just me and the TV. tarted too slow and struggled to put out even 2W/kg. By about the 7th hairpin I was starting to get a rhythm at about 2.8W/kg and was able to maintain it all the way up with a good sprint finish over the last 300 m. Average of 240 W over the climb, so sweet-spot riding for me (FTP 275). With competition and a good warm up I reckon sub the hour is easily possible. Oh and I have lost another 1.5kg since I last updated my profile so that would certainly help with the climbing if I updated it. Certainly one to enjoy again 🙂

Well done to all the STW massif who have given it a go today.

Enjoy???? What's wrong with you people! It was horrific!

Average power for the ride to sky route was 308w.

Nice pace, around 310-320w from the start, with a couple of surges, following others who were just faster. Turn 6 started to bite, and the hardest bit mentally was after turn 1.

Legs are still tired from the FTP test and ZSUN A ride and that ascent topped it off. A couple of days off should sort that though. I’ll definitely revisit the Alpe, if only to get my Tron bike quicker. 51% of the way there. All workouts will be heading up, up, up I think.

Also recovering from a cold as promised I did my scheduled Z3 interval up the Alp today.  Bearing in mind I had to stay in Z3 I rode a 233w average for a time of 1:01.  Its kind of enjoyable. I found corner 4 mentally hard as I thought I'm almost the yet there was about another 10 mins to go.

Ok for a non climber, might have to give it a proper go for a time one day.

I ditched my Zwift subscription when sections of the map became limited to members with more points / experience. Only home one or two days a week so while I'd like to explore the Jungle or new Alps courses they're months away. At £15/month Zwift can do one.

Trainerroad gives better results for the time you put in anyway.

Obviously it's possible to join a planned ride but that's beside the point.

Completed the horsemen loop as the weather was awful and fancied a longer session - 59min not too shabby considering the loop starts with volcano, KOM and tower climb...

its good fun, nice to have a new climb to aim a time at

I had a go this morning in 67mins.  Took it too steady on the bottom of the climb so looking forward to giving it another try and getting a little closer to an hour.  Getting close to seeing a 7 on the left of the scales for the first time in a few years. Just a shame its Easter which will no doubt undo some of the hard work!!

I just completed it in 68:02 so I reckon you and I could accompany each other weeksy! I kept my HR at around 150 bpm (170 FTHR) and was mimicking the gradient with a big-ish gear on my Kinetic RnR trainer so my legs got a good workout (I've done the real thing 3 times). I thought it was a bit of a boring grind to tell the truth and the samey graphics didn't help much.

I'll probably do it now and again but I think the other Watopia climbs are more interesting.

Well after all the excitement of Ad'Z over the last couple of days I needed to just ride hard and fast. Unfortunately, stuff in the lambing shed conspired to leave me a window that had very little on over that took my fancy. So it was I chose to do another Time Trial, only this time a mountainous one that did the Epic KOM in reverse and took in the radio mast. Hmm, 48 hours after Ad'Z, was this a good idea? Was kind of disappointed to find only 2 others in Group C in the pens and only 12 riders in total. Ah well, at least a medal should be on the cards 🙂 Decided not to give it full beans from the off but to try and hold as close to FTP as I could for the whole ride. Turned out to be a good call. Settled into a rhythm and was about 12 secs & 20 secs respectively behind the other 2 until the last really steep ramp to the top. Was feeling strong so was grinding out 320 watts from the last corner and managed to haul in the first of them just before the top. Went off the top about 8 secs behind the leader in our group. Not sure if it was my bike (Aero TT bike) or the new Lazer helmet from the AdZ climb, but I was able to hit 99 kmh just before rejoining the main climb. I carried speed over the top and onto the next false flat and was able to power past the other chap on the rise before the ridge. Then power down at 275W all the way to the bottom of the hill saw me 30 seconds ahead going into the sea-tunnels and I never lost the advantage. So took the win and only a minute off the best (and only 🙂 ) Group B rider. Was a bit worried I might get bumped up but average of 3.1 and 265W sees me stay a Goup C rider for now.

I had a crack at the ADZ and it is pretty tough. The last few segments are long but i managed it in exactly 50 minutes dead. I had a few technical issues with my cadence sensor and a bit of wheel slippage so i reckon i could shave a bit of time off but not much. I reckon i went up at avg of about 300w so around 4w/kg.

EDIT: according to strava i did it in 49:44 with an avg of 292w

Did the ADZ on some weird block bike earlier.

46:54.49

Paced myself weirdly, not sure I’m in a rush to repeat but shall see.

Rode the Tour of Watopia, Stage 1 tonight, first time through the jungle section which in the direction we were going had a nice long downhill blast. In theory this ride was going to be at a more relaxed pace than the actual race last week. Never works out that way and with almost 500 riders there was always someone just up the road or breathing down your neck to keep you honest. I managed to smash my PB time for the EPIC climb, by enough to place me 80/86 on the STW leader board (i was shocked to see a couple of names I recognised behind me).

The climb gave me plenty of time to consider why my avatar won't draft, I think it's the size of his arse! Unless there is an actual van to follow, some part of it will always be sticking out into the wind. The contrast when some tiny looking Polish chap came flying past was ridiculous.

Great ride though and looking forward to the next stages!

Wanted to ride a 3x3 (3 hrs at 3 W/kg) and my first KICKR ride of three hours. Sadly the giant pretzel route is not open for me, so I rode the standard pretzel. Also since it's not a workout, I don't seem to be able to set ergo mode. Oh well pace myself...

First climb at 4-4.5 W/kg, then into a small group who I politely wait for at every kick. Onto the second climb, and down to 4 W/kg. I set KOM of 22:00 and am rewarded with a jersey - oooh! Recovery ride to the finish, except I forgot how long the ride was meant to be. Forgive me. IPAD Mini 4 in the poorly lit garage with my eyesight does not make for easy deciphering. Anyway managed the ride in sub 2 20 and an average power of 3.2 W/kg.

Now that may have unlocked a level or two - who knows? Where do I check?

Also looking at options for laptop and ANT to ride on the rollers. The bluetooth vivosmart heart rate monitor is one option. Want to ride Paris Roubaix on the rollers on Sunday.

I'm just going to leave this here, mostly because it properly cracked me up. I do kind of get where people are coming from, but basically if you believe anyone else's power figures on Zwift, you're more trusting than me...

Note: obviously mine are completely legit...